Month: October 2021

Posted on

What is nonlocality and how might it relate to our daily lives?

Nonlocality describes the apparent ability of objects to instantaneously know about each other’s state, even when separated by large distances (potentially even billions of light years), almost as if the universe at large instantaneously arranges its particles in anticipation of future events.*

*I conceptually suggest temporal ‘things’ like within a without time ‘universal-environment’. This is where the past, the present and the future are the same (exist simultaneously). This is as Einstein postulated in his later life. It might be said that the universe is not only aware of itself but also of all things going on within it. I also suggest that we have both a temporal consciousness that relates to space and time, as well as an ontological consciousness (or ‘awareness’) that is not related to space and time. This link demonstrates how this might be the case. Does this evidence of how we are intimately ‘connected’ to the universe as well as our connection with it last for as long as the universe (at least ontologically) exists?

Non locality (also known in physics as entanglement theory) is an operative effect (influence) that can be demonstrated within our mind and brain nexus. This theory is professionally discussed in this video presentation. Nonlocality has been regularly demonstrated by experiment in the physics community. I suggest that this is an internationally respected source. It is also demonstrated in this important David Bohm Infinite Potential documentary.**

**If the words in this presentation seem to you to have a degree of validity I introduce you to this David Bohm documentary trailer to the full Infinite Potential video. In doing this try to understand the philosophical commentary thereto rather than the physics debate therein. Some of the science is complicated and not designed to be fully understood by lay persons, including me.

Posted on

Massive quantum mechanics experiment demonstrates that larger objects might be entangled with each other too

If this is the case it could help solve a long standing physics mystery.

See the story here

If the words in this presentation seem to you to have a degree of validity I introduce you to this David Bohm documentary trailer to the full Infinite Potential video. In doing this try to understand the philosophical commentary thereto rather than the physics debate therein. Some of the science is complicated and not designed to be fully understood by lay persons, including me.

Posted on

What might be the untold story about the possible involvement of the US in respect to the Covid-19 debate?

An opening quotation derived from the story cited below

Quote:

“Researchers took the spike protein from several recently discovered bat viruses and encoded them onto the “backbone” of another bat virus. They would then see if that new virus was able to infect mice modified to have the same cell receptor as humans.

The work was already public. But a research progress report released for the first time by The Intercept last week indicates there was some change in functionality of these manipulated bat viruses, though scientists disagree about the quality and significance of the data.

One chart in the report suggests these chimeric viruses were initially able to grow better in the humanized mice than the original virus they were built from. Another indicates one new virus caused the mice to have significant weight loss relative to the original.”

The story

This link might be of interest to professional science researchers.

(the above link is beyond my comprehension)

Supporting video

Posted on

Why China is having a difficulty weaning itself from its dependency on coal

Nearly 60 per cent of China’s energy-hungry economy is fuelled by coal. China is struggling to kick its coal habit. What happens if it cannot?

A story published in the Singapore Straits Times on the 3rd of September 2021

Quote:

“BEIJING (AFP) – US climate envoy John Kerry is in Beijing this week to urge the world’s biggest polluter to reduce its reliance on coal.

But China is building more coal-fired power plants than the rest of the world combined, a plan that is threatening to derail its decarbonisation plans and global efforts to tackle climate change.

Here are five reasons why Beijing is struggling to kick its coal habit.

Nearly 60 per cent of China’s energy-hungry economy is fuelled by coal.

Despite pledges to peak coal consumption before 2030, China brought 38.4 gigawatts of new coal-fired power into operation last year – more than three times what was brought on line globally.

“In the Chinese context coal is synonymous with energy security,” Mr Li Shuo, a climate policy adviser at Greenpeace China, said.

“Plans announced so far don’t give a clear answer on how China can ensure a steady energy supply without relying on the dirty fossil fuel.” Economic planners are also nervous about slashing coal too quickly as it could cripple growth.

Over the past six months, several industrial hubs across the world’s second largest economy have been hit by the worst blackouts seen in a decade as coal imports were disrupted due to the pandemic.

China’s top decision-making body in late July said it was “playing a national game of chess” that balances the needs of the economy with Beijing’s climate goals.

Greenpeace’s Li warned this indicated a “push-back on the climate momentum generated by last year’s carbon neutrality announcement”, referring to a promise by President Xi Jinping to make China carbon neutral by 2060.

Over a third of China’s six million coal miners lost their jobs between 2013 and 2020 as old mines shuttered, a recent survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found.

Fear of mass unemployment leading to social unrest has forced the top economic planner to slam the breaks on local government plans to cut emissions.

Earlier this month, the central government warned provinces to ditch “campaign-style carbon reductions measures” and do more to cushion the impact on businesses forced to cut pollution.

Most of China’s wind, solar and hydro power is generated in the country’s far western regions.

The lack of power lines that can transmit this energy to factories on the east coast has forced renewable power producers to stop production for months at times.

State Grid – the country’s main utility provider – said it has invested over $45 billion dollars over the past five years to connect renewable power sources to the national grid and build energy storage facilities to ensure clean power isn’t wasted.

But there is still a mismatch between supply and demand.

China launched its long-awaited emissions trading system in July, but the price of a metric tonne of carbon is still less than US$7 (S$9.40) – far below the US$70 per metric tonne in the European scheme in late August.

Analysts have warned this price is not high enough to force big polluters to clean up their act.

The market currently covers 2,162 big power producers that generate about a seventh of global carbon emissions from burning fossil-fuels.

But regulators have given out too many free permits to pollute pushing down the price of carbon, Ms Yan Qin, an analyst at Refinitiv, said in a research note.

Soviet-style energy quotas are forcing utility companies to buy more electricity generated using coal, even though renewables are now cheaper.

Efforts to change or abolish this quota system have stalled for nearly a decade due to pushback from coal-heavy provinces.

“The quota system has meant that the coal power generation business in China is almost risk-free,” said Dr Yuan Jiahai, a professor at North China Electric Power University in Beijing.

“So local governments and industries are rushing to build new coal capacity before the deadline to peak emissions.”…”

Source

This video presentation further supports the above story

Posted on

An international team of archaeologists has uncovered ancient remains that add new dimensions to the story of human evolution

Who Is the Nesher Ramla Homo?

The story

Quote:

“An international team of archaeologists has uncovered ancient remains that add new dimensions to the story of human evolution.

By Michelle Langley

Michelle Langley is a senior research fellow at Griffith University.

7 JUL 2021

This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons.

An international group of archaeologists has discovered a missing piece in the story of human evolution.

Excavations at the Israeli site of Nesher Ramla have recovered a skull that may represent a late-surviving example of a distinct Homo population that lived in and around modern-day Israel from about 420,000 to 120,000 years ago.

As researchers Israel Hershkovitz, Yossi Zaidner, and colleagues detail in two companion studies published recently in Science, this ancient human community traded both their culture and genes with nearby Homo sapiens groups for many thousands of years.

THE NEW FOSSILS

Pieces of a skull, including a right parietal (toward the back/side of the skull) and an almost complete mandible (jaw) were dated to 140,000–120,000 years old, with analysis finding the person it belonged to wasn’t fully H. sapiens.

Nor were they Neanderthal, however, which was the only other type of human thought to have been living in the region at the time.

Instead, this individual falls right smack in the middle: a unique population of Homo never before recognized by science.

Through detailed comparison with many other fossil human skulls, the researchers found the parietal bone featured “archaic” traits that are substantially different from both early and recent H. sapiens. In addition, the bone is considerably thicker than those found in both Neanderthals and most early H. sapiens.

The jaw, too, displays archaic features, but also includes forms commonly seen in Neanderthals.

The bones together reveal a unique combination of archaic and Neanderthal features distinct from both early H. sapiens and later Neanderthals.

(RE)THINK HUMAN

ARE THERE MORE OF THESE PEOPLE?

The authors suggest fossils found at other Israeli sites, including the famous Lady of Tabun, might also be part of this new human population, in contrast to their previous Neanderthal or H. sapiens identification.

The Lady of Tabun (known to archaeologists as Tabun C1) was discovered in 1932 by pioneering archaeologist Yusra and her field director, Dorothy Garrod.

Extensively studied, this important specimen taught us much about Neanderthal anatomy and behavior in a time when very little was known about our enigmatic evolutionary cousins.

If Tabun C1 and others from the Qesem and Zuttiyeh caves were indeed members of the Nesher Ramla Homo group, this reanalysis would explain some inconsistencies in their anatomy previously noted by researchers.

The mysterious Nesher Ramla Homo may even represent our most recent common ancestor with Neanderthals. Its mix of traits supports genetic evidence that early gene flow between H. sapiens and Neanderthals occurred between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago. In other words, that interbreeding between the different Homo populations was more common than previously thought.

Even more puzzling, the team also found a collection of some 6,000 stone tools at the Nesher Ramla site.

These tools were made the same way contemporaneous H. sapiens groups made their technology, with the similarity so strong it appears the two populations—Nesher Ramla Homo and H. sapiens—were hanging out on a regular basis. It seems they weren’t just exchanging genes but also tips on toolmaking.

AND THERE WAS FIRE!

The site also produced bones of animals caught, butchered, and eaten on-site. These findings indicate Nesher Ramla Homo hunted a range of species, including tortoise, gazelle, aurochs, boar, and ostrich.

Furthermore, they were using fire to cook their meals, evident through the uncovering of a campfire feature the same age as the fossils. Indeed, the Nesher Ramla Homo were not only collecting wood to make campfires and cook, but also actively managing their fires as people do today.

While the earliest indications of controlled use of fire is much older—perhaps 1 million years ago—the interesting thing about this particular campfire is the evidence that Nesher Ramla people tended to it as carefully as contemporary H. sapiens and Neanderthals did their own fires.

Most impressive is that the campfire feature survived, intact, outside of a protected cave environment for so long. It is now the oldest intact campfire ever found in the open air.

In sum, if we think of the story of human evolution like an Ikea bookcase that isn’t quite coming together, this discovery is effectively like finding the missing shelf buried at the bottom of the box. The new Nesher Ramla Homo allows for a better-fitting structure, although a few mysterious “extra” pieces remain to be pondered over.

For example, exactly how did the different Homo groups interact with one another? And what does it mean for the cultural and biological changes that were occurring for Homo populations in this period?

Continuing to work with these questions (the “extra pieces”) will help us build a better understanding of our human past.”

Source

Supporting BBC video presentation

Posted on

Why the new U.S. Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific is important for America’s allies and partners

U.S. Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific

January 15, 2021 12:15 PM

Quote:

“The following is the recently released and declassified U.S. Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific and a statement from National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.

From the statement:

The United States is and always has been an Indo-Pacific nation. From our first trading ships that departed for China just eight years after the American Revolution, to establishing our first diplomatic presence in India in 1794, U.S. engagement in the region has been built on trade, cooperation, and shared sacrifice, yielding the peace and prosperity enjoyed across the region today.

The United States Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific (henceforth, the Framework) has served, for the last three years, as the Trump Administration’s overarching strategic guidance for implementing the President’s 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS) within the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region.

The NSS recognizes that the most consequential challenge to the interests of the United States, and those of our allies and partners, is the growing rivalry between free and repressive visions of the future. To realize America’s positive vision for the region, and to address the unprecedented challenges that Indo-Pacific nations face to their sovereignty, prosperity, and peace, in February 2018, President Trump approved the Framework for implementation across Executive Branch departments and agencies. The original document has been declassified and released, to communicate to the American people and to our allies and partners America’s enduring commitment to this vital region.

The Framework has guided the development of numerous subordinate policy frameworks and campaign plans that have steered the U.S. approach to specific issues of importance to the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, such as the U.S. Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China, the U.S. Strategic Framework for Countering China’s Economic Aggression, the U.S. Campaign Plan for Countering China’s Malign Influence in International Organizations, and others. Together with its subordinate documents, the Framework has guided U.S. whole-of-government actions to advance regional prosperity and stability, including sovereignty, freedom of navigation and overflight, reciprocity in trade and investment, respect for individual rights and rule of law, and transparency.

Beijing is increasingly pressuring Indo-Pacific nations to subordinate their freedom and sovereignty to a “common destiny” envisioned by the Chinese Communist Party. The U.S. approach is different. We seek to ensure that our allies and partners – all who share the values and aspirations of a free and open Indo-Pacific – can preserve and protect their sovereignty.

The Framework recognizes that a free and open Indo-Pacific depends on robust American leadership. The United States has a long history of fighting back against repressive regimes on behalf of those who value freedom and openness. As the world’s largest economy, with the strongest military and a vibrant democracy, it is incumbent on the United States to lead from the front.”

Source

The statement